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Volume 9: Number 3: Article 4
Six Modern Apparitional Experiences
Ian Stevenson, Dept. of Psychiatric Medicine, University of Virginia,
School of Medicine, Charlottesville, Virginia 22908.
The early investigators of paranormal phenomena, in the late 19th century,
gave much attention to "hallucinations" occurring in ostensibly healthy
persons. The term "apparitions" became applied to perceptions of persons
who were not physically present to the percipient. The investigators
attached special importance to apparitional experiences that either
coincided with the death of the perceived person or contained verified
details of which the percipient had no normal knowledge. In recent decades
interest in apparitions on the part of investigators has greatly diminished,
but this is not because the experiences no longer occur. A 1948 survey
in Great Britain reported that 14.3% of respondents had had such an
experience and a 1979 survey in the United States gave an even higher
figure of 17%. This paper reports the investigations of six modern apparitional
experiences occurring in the United States and the United Kingdom between
1955 and 1989. The percipients were interviewed in the 1980s and 1990s.
Corroboration before verification was only obtainable in one case. Other
confirmatory information, such as death certificates, was, however,
obtained for some cases. In four of the six cases the experience coincided
with the death of the perceived person or occurred close to the time
of the death. In the other two cases the percipient saw a deceased relative
of a dying person just before the death of that person.
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